Study burnishes Escondido's conservative credentials

DAVID FRIED - Staff Writer

ESCONDIDO —— One of the founding cities in Republican-dominated
North County also ranks as a national bastion of conservatism,
according to a study released Thursday.

In a study by the Bay Area Center for Voting Research that
ranked America's 25 top liberal and conservative cities, Escondido
came in 11th on the conservative list, just behind Orange, and
ahead of Allentown, Pa.

The Berkeley-based nonprofit, nonpartisan center looked at how
237 cities with populations of more than 100,000 voted in last
year's presidential elections.

The ranking were based on the percentage of residents who voted
for George Bush, John Kerry or any third-party candidate who
garnered more than one-tenth of 1 percent of the vote.

In Escondido, conservative candidates raked in 64 percent of the
vote, versus 36 percent for liberals, the study showed.

Mayor Lori Pfeiler said she was surprised to see Escondido
ranked so high nationally, but not too shocked about which list it
landed on.

"I think it reflects that we're a city with a history," said
Pfeiler, whose name has been bandied about as a potential successor
to scandal-plagued Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

"We've been around for more than 100 years," she said. "We have
a strong foundation. And we focus on families. So I think it's
consistent that we would end up being more conservative on that
kind of scale."

Overall, Provo, Utah, topped the conservative list, while
Detroit earned the title of America's most liberal city.

Seven Southern and Central California locales landed on the list
of cities on the political right, while three Northern California
cities made the list of cities on the left.

Oceanside ranked 46th on the conservative list, with 57 percent
of voters in that coastal city casting their ballot for Bush or
another candidate on the right.

The county's most populous city, San Diego, ranked 119th on both
the liberal and conservative lists, although a breakdown of its
voting patterns showed 55 percent of San Diegans cast their ballot
for a candidate on the left.

Assemblyman Mark Wyland, R-Escondido, said he was proud to see
the city where he was born and raised recognized for what he
characterized as its conservative values.

"It's about the importance of families, about the importance of
work, of limited government," Wyland said. "I think these are
American values, and I think Escondido represents them very
well."

But while Republicans dominated Escondido's voting pattern,
those on the left said the ranking does not tell the whole
story.

"It depends on what criteria you're using," said Tania Bowman, a
public interest attorney and president of the Escondido Democratic
Club. "If you look at just votes, Republicans have definitely won
office in this area."

But she added that the real political pulse of Escondido is much
more complicated, especially when one takes into account city
spending initiatives such as Proposition P, which voters passed in
November.

The $86 million public safety facilities bond raises property
taxes in Escondido an additional $34.75 for every $100,000 of
assessed property value for the next 30 years.

"If you look at fiscal conservatism, I don't think our City
Council has been that conservative," said Bowman, who lost a bid
for a council seat in November.

In general, the center's study found that cities that voted for
liberal candidates tended to be large metropolises with
predominantly black populations with lower average incomes. In
contrast, conservative cities were typically suburban, white and
higher income.

But that correlation between race and voting patterns didn't
hold up as much in cities with a large Latino population, such as
Escondido, where 68 percent of residents are white and 39 percent
are Latino.

According to Lindsay Hogan, a researcher with the center, blacks
tended to vote for a liberal candidate, no matter where they lived,
whereas Latinos voted more in step with their city of
residence.